Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott held a conference call Monday for bloggers. He wanted to explain an appeal he filed on behalf of the state Friday. Sister blogger extraordinaire Sibyl West has the conference call on tape for you here: On the Record with TX AG Greg abbott by Ramparts360 . You can hear us as we ask questions after General Abbott makes his statement.
General Abbott began by saying the only one person who was right about Obamacare was Nancy Pelosi because she said that they had to pass the bill so we all could see what was in it.
The appeal filed Friday was one from an Obamacare challenge - that of the mandate which is looked upon as a violation of freedom of religion as it pertains to demands made of those institutions and employers with religious objections to contraception to provide such coverage in health care insurance benefits. General Abbott said he thinks there are some 27 challenges filed against Obamacare based on the religious freedom issue.
In July, a Federal court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Texas and other states and declared the lawsuit had no standing - or a rightness to bring suit. This was in the 8th District Court of Nebraska. Friday, an appeal was filed on the ruling. The goal is to get the ruling overturned as unconstitutional. It still resides in the 8th Circuit.
General Abbott believes the mandates in Obamacare are "an unprecedented attempt to purge God from the public square." He spoke of the Democrats' penchant for trying to remove God with judicial activism - such as those judges removing benedictions from high school graduations and of the booing recently during the Democratic convention when the word God was put back into the platform.
He says that the administration and HHS continue to find ways to skirt around the Constitution. Attorneys General are the last line of defense to hold this administration accountable. He spoke of HHS using exemptions "in unpredictable, unscientific, ad hoc way" in picking winners and losers with vouchers. Labor based exemptions for unions are used for political purposes, not legal purposes. Religious churches have been exempted but not faith based organizations who employ those who aren't believers. That, he said, is worth fighting.
My question? Well, I'm a process-oriented person so I asked about the other states who joined with us in the lawsuit. They are: Nebraska, South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Maine, Ohio, South Dakota, Louisiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Colorado. And I asked why it was filed in Nebraska? It is because there were private individuals in that area who were willing to join in the lawsuit with the states on short notice. These individuals included a nun, a Catholic high school, Catholic social services, and so on.
Attorney General Abbott remains strong in fighting for Texas against the mandates of Obamacare.
No comments:
Post a Comment